The Chat bot vs. the editor-in-chief of Science

May 15, 2023 • 12:30 pm

As you know, Science’s editor-in-chief Holden Thorp has been dragging his magazine into inappropriate realms of ideology (see my posts here), and of course his power as editor of America’s most famous science journal keeps some scientists from speaking up about this.

Reader Jay thought he’d do an experiment and compare Thorp to the output of Chat GPT, which of course is very woke. Here’s what he sent me:

Who is the better wokebot, Holden Thorp or ChatGPT?I (Jay) asked ChatGPT:“Some people argue that scientific ideas should be judged on their merits rather than the identity group of the scientist who put forth the idea. Please refute this argument in the manner of Holden Thorp.“ChatGPT responded:

“As Holden Thorp, I would respectfully disagree with the argument that scientific ideas should be judged solely on their merits rather than the identity group of the scientist who proposed them. While evaluating ideas based on their merits is essential, it is equally important to consider the broader context in which scientific knowledge is produced.“Science is a human endeavor, shaped by the diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds of scientists. The identity of the scientist can influence the questions they ask, the methods they employ, and the biases they may bring to their research. By recognizing the impact of identity on scientific inquiry, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the strengths and limitations of the ideas put forth.“The exclusion of identity from scientific evaluation can perpetuate biases and inequalities within the scientific community. Historically, certain groups, such as women and minority scientists, have faced systemic barriers and discrimination that limited their access to resources, opportunities, and recognition. Ignoring the identity of scientists risks perpetuating these inequities and undervaluing the contributions of underrepresented groups.“Moreover, the identity of the scientist can shape the dissemination and acceptance of scientific ideas. Studies have shown that research findings are more likely to be accepted and cited when they come from prestigious institutions or individuals with established reputations. This “authority bias” can lead to the undue elevation of certain ideas based on the status and identity of the scientist, rather than their scientific rigor.“By acknowledging the importance of identity in scientific evaluation, we can actively promote inclusivity and diversity in the scientific community. Embracing diverse perspectives fosters innovation, creativity, and interdisciplinary collaborations. It allows for the exploration of research questions that may have been overlooked and the development of solutions that are more comprehensive and equitable.“In conclusion, while judging scientific ideas based solely on their merits may seem appealing, it is crucial to consider the identity group of the scientist. Ignoring identity risks perpetuating biases and inequalities, hindering the advancement of scientific knowledge. By actively recognizing and addressing the influence of identity, we can foster a more inclusive and rigorous scientific enterprise.“

Jay’s conclusion:

ChatGPT made a coherent argument, avoided strawmen, and cited evidence. A good wokebot would do none of that, so my vote goes to Holden.

That is, Jay judges Thorp a better wokebot. Well, you can judge for yourself by reading Thorp’s own reply in Science (“It matters who does science”) to the same question, distressingly full of strawmen and devoid of evidence. I am impressed at how eloquent ChatGPT spews its wokeness. (Remember, it regurgitates a version of what it gets from public sources.)

Last meal report from Paris

May 15, 2023 • 11:00 am

For some reason I didn’t have time to write about our last meal in Paris, at the esteemed and old fashioned restaurant Sébillon in Neuilly, a small town that’s not in Paris, but might as well be. It was recommended by one of Winnie’s friends, and it turned out to be an excellent recommendation. It’s a little bit out of the way, so although it was jammed for Sunday lunch, we saw no other tourists. Winnie’s friend Nicole joined us for the house specialty, gigot (leg of lamb) served with the traditional white beans. And it’s served according to the two most beautiful words in French: à volonté, or “at your will”.  The proper English tradition is “all you can eat”. And I was prepared to eat plenty of lamb leg, especially if was cooked the right way: pink on the inside, or even rare.

I got off at the wrong Métro stop, but I didn’t know that. Because I was early, I went into a nearby Catholic church (St. Jean-Baptiste) as I heard the sounds of Mass within. I hadn’t been in a Mass since 1989, when I wandered into the midnight Mass at Notre Dame in Paris. What with the singing, the organ, and the swinging censers spewing incense, and the church (before it was burned) that was quite a spectacle.

A few scenes from the Neuilly church:

A kid getting baptized, as per the church’s name. You don’t get dunked like a doughnut any more; this priest simply dipped a hankie in the holy water and wiped the boy’s forehead. That’s baptism on the cheap!

St. John the Baptist:

A memorial to those who died for France in WWI:

. . . and the painting below it:

The Mass:

Suddenly my phone buzzed; it was Winnie telling me I was late. It turns out there are two stops on the Métro like with the name “Neuilly” in them, and I had gotten off at the wrong one. Fortunately, the right one was just two stops down the line, and the Restaurant Sébillon was right by the stop. And so we were only a few minutes late.

Restaurant exterior:

The interior. It’s a panorama, so click to enlarge. It’s an old-fashioned place, lovely and just perfect for Sunday lunch when, according to tradition, adults take their parents and older relatives out to lunch:

I had the prix-fixe menu, which included a choice of oysters for the entrée. My haul:

I had a white wine whose genre I can’t remember (it’s been too long)

Winnie and Nicole had the white asparagus, which was in season. (I almost went for it.) It was served with a butter sauce that both of them eschewed

And then. . . . the GIGOT, brought to the table on carts. I could specify that I wanted rare lamb, and knew that I could get more:

My first plate (I had three). This is how I like my lamb, and this was terrific: juicy and flavorful. The beans were also excellent (the quality of gigot-accompanying beans does vary among restaurants.)

We all had gigot. Nicole, whose appetite is normal, was satisfied with one plate, and I think I even beat Winnie, who had two (she generally can outeat me). But we differed in our desserts. I had the baba au rhum (rum-soaked spongecake), served with a bottle of rum (yo ho ho!) on the side if you want more. This was the rummiest baba au rhum I’ve ever had! I was tipsy after the meal, and I think the rum was largely responsible.

The ladies had a crème caramel and crêpes for dessert:

A selfie of all of us.  The room was filled with locals, with many tables occupied by families as well as and seniors, the latter presumably grandparents.

On the way out, we passed a huge and luscious-looking apple tarte:

I decided to visit the nearby Musée de l’Homme while the ladies went off to nap. It turned out that I should have napped too, as the famous anthropology museum was huge, and I was too full to take it all in. But I wanted to see the exhibit of early human art that had influenced Picasso.

Here’s a reproduction of the Venus of Lespuge, between 26,000 and 24,000 years old,

And a Picasso nude, “Bust of a Woman” (1931) showing a similar style:

Also on view: beach stones that Picasso picked up and sculpted, presumably influenced by “primitive” art. These must be worth a gazillion dollars.

I was too exhausted to peruse the anthropological collections, but did note two things. First, a wall of rubber tongues. When you pull on one, it speaks the language it represents (each tongue connects to a speaker so you can hear the language). Very clever!

And, right outside is a famous Parisian landmark:

Thus endeth my Parisian food jaunt, that included eight restaurants.  As for the Sébeillon, I recommend it highly, but do go for Sunday lunch, and reserve!

Now the NYT presents ghost stories as serious assertions

May 15, 2023 • 9:30 am

Perhaps readers can help answer the question, “Why does the New York Times keep touting woo, publishing pieces about ghosts, dowsing, reincarnation, and, especially astrology?” Not only does it present stories of woo like this without ever questioning them, but it does so repeatedly. Is woo supposed to be a replacement of religion for the “nones” whom the paper is wooing (yes, that’s a double entendre)? Or is it simply sensationalism? Your guess is as good as mine, but one thing is striking: the country’s most serious and respected newspaper presents superstition and the supernatural over and over again, but never prints articles debunking it. For more examples, see the link in my first sentence.

Today’s story is by Rachel Louise Snyder, identified in the piece as “a professor at American University, is the author of the forthcoming memoir “Women We Buried, Women We Burned.’” She has an estimable background as a writer and traveler, so this piece defies me. At the very least it shows that an educated and aware person can believe in complete nonsense.

Click to read:

The background: Rachel’s mom died of breast cancer when the child was but 8. Her father remarried, giving her a stepmother and two stepsiblings, but they fought so violently that the evangelical parents kicked all three kids out of the house. Eventually, Snyder made her way to Cambodia, where she learned about spirits of ancestors and ghosts—and finally encountered one in the form of her mom:

My travels eventually took me to live in Cambodia. Many Khmer people believe that there is a world of spirits who live parallel to our human world. Spirits can inhabit the tops of tall trees, make trouble in the life of the living, inhabit the bodies of dogs. The spirits are not those of spooky monsters and creaky homes. They are often ancestors to which we the living must pay homage, to remember them and give them offerings so that they don’t suffer in their next life.

As an American, I rejected such beliefs. As the years went by, though, I began to hear more stories of ghosts, not just from Cambodians but also from expat friends. There was the ghost who’d shake my friend Wynne awake in the night and not stop until Wynne said soothing things out loud: “You’ll be OK. I mean you no harm.” There was the State Department friend who woke in a hotel room one night to see a man walk across the floor and disappear. In the morning, her husband told her he’d seen him, too.

And then one afternoon, 30 years after my mother’s death, her spirit came to me in my Phnom Penh apartment. It was monsoon season, the light in my living room a mustardy yellow, and I was alone. What do you say when the person you love most in the world returns? I told my mom how much of my life she’d missed. I told her of relatives who’d died. I spoke aloud, into the humid air.

And then I knew there was only one question I truly had for her. “I wish you were here,” I said, “to help me decide if I should have a child.”

Her mom’s ghost (a Cambodian-like spirit of an ancestor) replied that this was a decision Snyder had to make, so she went ahead and had a kid. She also decided to let her kid make annual visits to Snyder’s previously alienated dad and stepmother. When her stepmother also got cancer, the relationship with Rachel strengthened. The stepmother then told Rachel that her biological mother died of cancer, which Rachel hadn’t really gasped. As her stepmother approached death, she turned more and more to Jesus, and Rachel accepted the religious woo.

I asked my stepmother, “Are you afraid?” She had just returned home from yet another hospital visit.

“I was afraid,” she told me. But then a chaplain came and talked to her and my father, and finally, she told my father: no more. She told him he could still hope, and she would hope, too, for a miracle. But in the meantime, she said she felt ready and she needed him to be with her. She said her angel had been in her room all week; she could see him as clearly as she could see me now. I thought of how in Cambodia death is just the end of a cycle, making space to start all over again.

Well, I’m not going to disabuse a dying person of her false beliefs, but Rachel’s own belief that death is part of a cycle is dubious at best, and religious woo at worst. It goes on.

Then [Rachel’s stepmother] said, “Can I talk to you about the Lord? I just have to because he’s my life.”

I nodded.

Jesus was on her right side at that moment and her guardian angel was on her left. She could see them. They didn’t talk, except once to say that everything would be all right. She just wanted me to know she could see them, her angel and her Jesus, that they had come to help her on her journey to wherever and whatever came next.

I nodded, listening. I believed her. Of course I did. We travel with our ghosts. Who better to lead us to what comes next? Our next life, our heaven, the birth of a daughter, a new mother, an old one.

I understood then. She wasn’t telling me a story of Christianity or faith or spirituality. She wasn’t even telling me a story about God. She was just telling me a love story. And I was part of it.

Now I’m not sure what the love story is here—perhaps I lack the emotional perspicacity to be moved by this tale. But what bothers me is Snyder’s dogged belief in ghosts—not as metaphors but as real apparitions. Further, the return of her mother’s ghost implies that those who die live on in some form.

Is there no fact-checking in op-eds? I know that when Anna and I wrote our op-ed for the WSJ, we had to vouch for every claim that we made (notice the links in the online version) and answer a passel of editor’s questions.  Is there no fact checking about whether Rachel saw a ghost? Of course there couldn’t be, as there’s no documentation, but everything we know about such claims testifies to the fact that there is no evidence for either ghosts or an afterlife.

You may think I’m being too picky: calling out claims about ghosts and the afterlife in what is supposedly a “love story”.  But what this does is simply buttress other people’s faith in woo, and in the pages of a respectable newspaper, too. In other words, it enables faith: here faith in ghosts, Jesus, angels, and the afterlife.

When I finished the story, I thought, “Jeez, the credulity of the paper is just begging for a Sokal-type hoax. Somebody should make up a story with the wildest claims about woo, embellish it so it’s also a heart-tugging tale, and then submit it to the Times.”  I won’t be the one to do that, but the paper’s penchant for this kind of stuff is real and, ultimately, harmful. What would you think if the paper retold a story about someone who really went to Heaven and met Jesus. who was riding on a rainbow-colored horse?  Oh, I forgot: there was a book about this, and it was a bestseller, earning millions.

From Flickr and the National Archives.

h/t: Greg

Readers’ wildlife photos

May 15, 2023 • 8:15 am

Today’s photos are not really of wildlife, but show the last segment of Kevin Elsken’s golfing-and-whisky vacation to the Scotland and Ireland. His notes are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Our visit to Ireland complete, we met once again with our Aquaholic ship and prepared to sail to Islay, a 240 square mile island just west of the Kintyre Peninsula. Just to be clear I have mispronounced this name every way imaginable, but never again! It is pronounced “EYE-la”. Calling it “IS-lay” is every bit as bad as pronouncing my home state name as “ar-KANSAS”. Do not be that person.

Rathlin Island is just off the northern coast of Ireland, and besides some beautiful cliffs, it features the world’s only upside-down lighthouse.

Our port of call for Islay was Port Ellen. As we approached, the Mull of Oa slowly became visible on our port side. The following photo is not particularly clear, but if you look carefully at the left side of the land mass you will see a tower pointing towards the heavens.

This is the American Monument, erected in 1920 by the American Red Cross, and it tells a story that I had never heard but will never forget.

On January 24, 1918 the SS Tuscania departed the United States with 384 crew members and over 2000 army personnel headed to Europe to fight in the Great War. On February 5 the German U-boat UB-77 contacted her convoy and, just after dark, launched two torpedoes. One found its mark. Luckily rescue boats were nearby, but still over 200 dead bodies, and some survivors, washed upon the shore of Islay. And what did the good people there do? They climbed down the cliffs, rescued the living, retrieved the dead, and gave them a humanitarian burial.

On September 25 of the same year the HMS Otranto, another troop ship, departed New York. On October 6, in heavy seas, the Otranto collided with another troop ship just off Islay. Over 300 men entered the water and a few made it to shore and were rescued. Again, the good people of Islay climbed down the cliffs, retrieved the bodies, and gave them a humanitarian burial.

We struck up a conversation with a local couple at the hotel patio bar. When they recounted the events of 1918 it was apparent, evidenced by the emotion in their faces and voices, that these events had a staggering impact on the inhabitants of the island, even more than a century later.

But on to happier topics. After our late morning arrival we checked into our hotel and began our next adventure, walking the Three Distilleries Path.

The three distilleries in question are Laphraoig, Lagavulin, and Ardbeg. We ask at the hotel desk how long the walk to the distilleries was, and received one of the funnier replies of the trip: “Aye, it will take ye’ about 30 minutes to get there, and it will take ye’ about 3 hours to get back.” Challenge accepted.

The walk was not easy. It was guarded dangerous critters:

Along the walk, ho-hum, another day in Scotland, another picture of the ruins of an 800 year old Scottish Castle. In this case it is Dunyvaig Castle:

But finally we arrived at our important destination: Lagavulin Distillery, where we had reserved a warehouse tasting.

And what a tasting!  We had 5 or 6 samples, as I recall, and one was a pretty old one (20 year? 25 year? I don’t recall exactly, I had a three hour walk ahead of me!!). That one was extra special, for sure. At the Bushmills Distillery in Northern Ireland they had a display showing how much of the “Angel’s Share” is lost when you store a whisky in a wooden barrel for 20 years. And it is a lot. No wonder the old stuff is so damn expensive.

So we did manage the trek back to the hotel and the next day we played the Machrie Golf Course. The heather, the gorse, the dunes, the ocean, it is why I love to play a true links golf course.

So after just over two weeks of fun and travel, our trip was coming to a close. Here is the sunset over Port Ellen on the last night of our golf trip proper (I got to spend one more night at a Holiday Inn Express next to the airport. Not counting that).

But our last day was a good one, a long drive with three ferry crossings on our way back to Glasgow. The morning started with a gorgeous sunrise as we headed out on the ferry.

As we made our way back to Kintyre we passed near the Isle of Jura. The mountain peaks are known as ‘The Paps of Jura’. Some trivia: Jura is where George Orwell lived when he wrote the novel ‘1984’. He suffered from tuberculosis, and he died shortly after the novel was published. His actual name was Eric Blair.

After landing we had a short drive to the lovely town of Tarbet, where we waited for our second ferry of the day. We had time to make a short climb to Tarbet Castle, which overlooks the town and the East Loch. The tower we see today dates to 1494, though there were structures there in the 13th century.

 

Our second ferry crossing went from Tarbet to Portavidie. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I spotted the following sign over the engine room door:

Not being a linguist, at first I thought the scribbled second line was Gaelic, but actually it is Italian. Which is kind of a second level of scary for if you have ever owned a Fiat you know how problematic Italian engineering can be. Which reminds me of an old joke:

In Heaven…
The Engineers are German
The Police are British
The Chefs are Italian
And The Lovers are French

But in Hell…
The Engineers are Italian
The Police are French
The Chefs are British
And the Lovers are German…
I guess I am cancelled now. Even though my ancestry favors Germany.

The last photo is one of the group that I travelled with, enjoying one last beautiful view, this one at the Tighnabruaich Viewpoint over Loch Ruel. In particular I want to give shout out to my friend Dick Smith (2nd from right). In my experience some people just have a knack for travel. How to find the right hotel, the right pub, a driver (or a boat) when you need one. Dick is one of those guys. He told me of hiring a young man to drive Dick and his wife Mary over the Andes one night so that they could catch a plane the next morning. “I was a little concerned”, Dick said, “The guy was chewing coca leaves. He offered me some, but I declined. You know, I should have tried it”. That is Dick. Right now Dick and Mary are headed for Antarctica. Travel safe, my friend.

Monday: Hili dialogue

May 15, 2023 • 6:45 am

Back to work! It’s Monday, May 15, 2023, and National Chocolate Chip Day, brought to you by Big Chocolate.

It’s also  International Conscientious Objectors Day, (ME!), Bring Flowers to Someone Day, Stepmother’s Day (which stepmother is being honored?), World Baking Day, International Day of Families, and, in the U.S. Peace Officers Memorial Day.  Once again I am contemplating closing down this website.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the May 15 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has been in power for 20 years, and his presidency has not been a happy one. Besides banning the teaching of evolution below the college level, he’s slowly transforming Turkey into a theocracy, as well as damping down freedom of the press. But he faced another election yesterday, and so far the news looks good: his challenger appears to be leading:

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey was facing the greatest political challenge of his career after millions voted on Sunday in pivotal elections that could reshape the country’s domestic and foreign policies.

The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that initial results showed Mr. Erdogan in the lead. But opposition leaders dismissed those figures as misleading and Mr. Erdogan’s main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, wrote on Twitter: “We are leading.”

The presidential and parliamentary elections took place three months after devastating earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people in southern Turkey, and were in many ways a referendum on Mr. Erdogan’s two decades as the country’s dominant politician. He faced an extremely tight race, largely because of anger at the state of the economy and concerns among many voters that he has pushed the country toward one-man rule.

Even as Mr. Erdogan tapped state resources in an effort to tilt the contest, pre-election polls showed a slight lead for Mr. Kilicdaroglu, who represents a coalition of six opposition parties and has vowed to shore up the economy and restore Turkey’s democracy. If no candidate secures a majority, the two front-runners would go to a runoff on May 28.

The winner will set the course for the country of 84 million, a NATO member with one of the world’s 20 largest economies and a wide array of economic and political ties across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

We may know the results tomorrow, but surely in a few days. And I’ll be a happy man if Erdogan loses. I wouldn’t put it past him, if he loses, to pull a trump and claim that he lost by fraud. But if there’s any fraud going on, it’s Erdogan’s. Kilicdaroglu is a much better bet, bent on strengthening NATO and Turkey’s ties to the west. He’d never oppose Scandinavian countries’ bids to join NATO.

*Another example, this time from Kenya of the faithful following their preacher’s advice to die for the sake of Jesus. It reminds me of the mass suicide at Jonestown or the Heaven’s Gate case, in both of which charistmatic leaders led their followers to death.

like hundreds of other believers, [Solomon Muendo] abandoned his home and moved there with his wife and two young children.

They were following the call of Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, a former taxi driver turned televangelist who, declaring that the world was about to end, marketed Shakahola to his followers as an evangelical Christian sanctuary from the fast-approaching apocalypse.

Instead of a haven, however, the 800-acre property, a sun-scorched wasteland of scrub and spindly trees, is now a gruesome crime scene, scattered with the shallow graves of believers who starved themselves to death — or, as Mr. Mackenzie would have it, crucified themselves so that they could meet Jesus.

As of this past week, 179 bodies have been exhumed and moved to a hospital mortuary in the coastal town of Malindi, around 100 miles east of Shakahola, for identification and autopsy. The government’s chief pathologists reported last week that while starvation caused many deaths, some of the bodies showed signs of death by asphyxiation, strangulation or bludgeoning. Some had had organs removed, a police affidavit said.

Hundreds more people are still missing, perhaps buried in undiscovered graves. Others are wandering the property without food like Mr. Muendo — whose wife and children are missing, his sister said.

Kenyan authorities are puzzled that they didn’t know abut these shenanigans, but there’s no puzzle about why this happened. It’s faith, Jake!

*A Washington Post exclusive reports that President Zelensky has secret plans to launch attacks against Russia:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has won the trust of Western governments by refusing to use the weapons they provide for attacks inside Russia and prioritizing the targeting of Russian forces inside Ukraine’s borders.

But behind closed doors, Ukraine’s leader has proposed going in a more audacious direction — occupying Russian villages to gain leverage over Moscow, bombing a pipeline that transfers Russian oil to Hungary, a NATO member, and privately pining for long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia’s borders, according to classified U.S. intelligence documents detailing his internal communications with top aides and military leaders.

The documents, which have not been previously disclosed, are part of a broader leak of U.S. secrets circulated on the Discord messaging platform and obtained by The Washington Post. They reveal a leader with aggressive instincts that sharply contrast with his public-facing image as the calm and stoic statesman weathering Russia’s brutal onslaught. The insights were gleaned through intercepted digital communications, providing a rare look at Zelensky’s deliberations amid Russian missile barrages, infrastructure attacks and war crimes.

The Pentagon, where senior U.S. military leaders were briefed on the matters outlined in the leaked documents, did not dispute the authenticity of the materials.
I really can’t blame Zelensky for this so long as he confines his attacks to military targets. Why should he not strike back after the Russians not only invaded his country, but are committing war crimes by targeting infrastructure and other civilian targets in Ukraine? But the minute he deliberately targets Russian civilians, he loses a lot of my support.

*In response to the WaPo report, Zelensky “clarified” that he’s not going after Russia, but simply liberating captured Ukrainian territory. But they’re already fighting for that, and they’ve even blow up stuff in Crimea (also captured Ukrainian land). The AP says this:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that his country is preparing a counteroffensive designed to liberate areas occupied by Russia, not to attack Russian territory.

Speaking during a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s goal is to free the territories within its internationally recognized borders.

The Washington Post cited previously undisclosed documents from a trove of U.S. intelligence leaks suggesting that Zelenskyy has considered trying to capture areas in Russia proper for possible use as bargaining chips in peace negotiations to end the war launched by Moscow in February 2022. This would put him at odds with Western governments that have insisted that weapons they provide must not be used to attack targets in Russia.

Asked about the report, Zelenskyy said: “We don’t attack Russian territory, we liberate our own legitimate territory.”

“We have neither the time nor the strength (to attack Russia),” he said, according to an official interpreter. “And we also don’t have weapons to spare, with which we could do this.”

“We are preparing a counterattack for the illegally occupied areas based on our constitutionally defined legitimate borders, which are recognized internationally,” Zelenskyy said.

I’m not sure I believe him, but now that he’s denied the reports, he has to keep his credibility by NOT occupying Russian territory (except Crimea, which is really Ukrainian territory).

*How could I not click on the WSJ article called “The most exciting young athlete in the world isn’t playing in America.”? (Why should he be? That headline is pure jingoism.) It turns out that the sport is footie, the team is Manchester City, and the athletes is Norwegian. I hadn’t even heard of him, even though soccer is my favorite sport (I don’t get to watch much as it’s not on American t.v. unless you pay).

Specifically, I want to pivot to the most thrilling human currently on two cleats, I mean boots:

Erling Haaland.

Or just Haaland—the Erling’s long been extraneous. He’s a 6-foot-4 Norwegian who celebrates goals by falling to the ground in a meditative Lotus pose, but also says he enjoys the fearsome nickname “Terminator.”

We will also accept That Guy, because you can’t miss Haaland out there—the unmistakable, ponytailed blond sequoia in Manchester City sky blue who looks like he escaped from a Gronkowski extended family reunion.

He’s the English Premier League’s breakout superstar, and he’s building a case as one of the most exciting young athletes on earth, in any sport, a true get to the television and watch him, now sensation.

Let me repeat: Get to the television and watch Haaland, now. Or any screen of your choice. Manchester City’s next game is Sunday, May 14, versus Everton at 9 a.m. ET.

Why the fuss? Pretty simple. It’s because Haaland scores. And scores and scores and scores and scores. And scores again. Then he scores one more goal, just in case you missed the last one. It’s honestly bigger news when Haaland doesn’t score—that’s what happened Tuesday, when Real Madrid impressively kept the big man quiet during a 1-1 tie in the opener of its Champions League semifinal.

Here; let’s watch some highlights of his career at Man United:

He’s big and powerful and, like Messi, fast, but I’d still rather watch Messi because of his finesse.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is acting out Darwin:

Hili: I’m lying here and I’m thinking.
A: What about?
Hili: Whether to act as an agent of natural selection or as a consumer.
In Polish:

Hili: Leżę tu i myślę.
Ja: Nad czym?
Hili: Czy działać jako agentka doboru naturalnego, czy być konsumerystką.

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy. Why do Canadian kids develop faster?

From Jesus of the Day. Something like these (they are artiodactyls and some species can swim a long distance underwater) may have been ancestors of whales):

 

From Beth:

********************

From Masih, both men and women fight back against the theocracy:

From Barry. I can’t believe the d*g did it!

From Simon, Obama’s Mother’s Day tweet. Boy, how his and Michelle’s girls have grown!

From Malcolm, a monkey being a cat:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, a nine-year-old girl gassed upon arrival.

Tweets from Professor Cobb, who’s still in the US, I think. Say “hi” if you see him. The first one involves random acts of kindness:

He labels this one “nsfw”:

Tweeted by the cartoonist:

The Babylon Bee on Israel and Palestine

May 14, 2023 • 1:00 pm

NOTE:  Some readers thought that this was a serious website, or that I thought it was a serious website. Most people realize that the Babylon Bee is a humorous “fake news” website, and what’s below is made up–satire. But it does convey some of the truth.

______________

 

Tomorrow is (wait for it) the U.N,’s commemoration of “Nakba Day,” (the word means “catastrophe” in Arabic), originally used around 1949 or so to mean the catastrophe caused by several Arab armies who couldn’t even manage to destroy Israel, and also caused many Palestinian Arabs to flee the country. That is, the original “Nakba” was the catastrophe CAUSED by Arab armies.

Later Yasser Arafat decided that the Nakba didn’t mean that, but referred to the catastrophe occurring when Jews announced their independent state and “expelled the Arabs”.

Tomorrow I’ll argue that the vast amount of that supposed “expulsion” was more of less voluntary, under orders from Arab leaders telling their people to get out of the way while their armies slaughtered Jews (no Arab country thought the Jews could possibly win), or Arabs fleeing after initiating fighting with Jews, but not, as the ideologues want you to think, the mass expulsion of Arabs from Israel because the Israelis didn’t want Arabs around.

What’s ironic about all this is that Israel was founded by a UN vote in 1947, came into being in 1948, and on that very day the legal country was attacked by 5 Arab armies with help from two more.

Well, until tomorrow. Here I reproduce from the Babylon Bee an article that, sadly, rings pretty true. The Bee gives you permission to reproduce whole articles so long as you don’t benefit commercially from doing so. And of course I don’t. It’s funny and sad and true all at once. The text is indented below the headline, which you can click on to go to the site:

JERUSALEM – Israel has tried to get along with Palestine and other neighboring countries, but a core disagreement between the two groups has increased tensions and made peace seem impossible. For many in the Middle East, what they want most of all is to kill Jews — which they see as a reasonable request. But a majority of Israel is made up of Jews who, first and foremost, do not want to be killed. And neither side is willing to compromise on these desires.

“We’re a simple people with a simple desire,” explained Bob Hamas, Palestinian founder of Hamas. “We just want to kill the Jews. We’re not dead set on how. Stabbings. Gunshots. Explosions. Pushing them into the sea. Any of those are fine with us, but Israel won’t allow any of those. Not even strangling. It’s keeping us from living our truth.”

Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel and a “you can’t murder Jews” extremist, explained that from his point of view it was Hamas that was being unreasonable. “We just don’t want people to kill us, you know,” he said. “It’s the number one thing people say to me: ‘Hey, Ben, make sure no one murders us.’ And I know this throws cold water on what a lot of people out there want, but I am not moving from this position. No killing the Jews.”

Compromises have been attempted, but so far both sides have rejected them. When the “Kill the Jews” side was asked if maybe they could just beat up the Jews, they were adamant that only killing Jews would make them happy. And Israel, which has faced a lot of international pressure to allow some of their people to be murdered, has remained equally adamant in wanting no murder whatsoever.

“We just want peace between us,” said Bob Hamas. “I mean peace with some murder. A lot of murder. But it always seems like an unattainable dream.”

The journal Science, promoting athletic competition between trans women and biological women, abjures science and distorts data

May 14, 2023 • 11:30 am

Under Science‘s editor-in-chief Holden Thorp, who regularly writes authoritarian “progressive” pieces in his bully pulpit, the entire journal has become woke. (Fortunately, the science articles themselves generally remain untainted by ideology.) But who dares to object to this editorial trend given that every scientist wants their papers published in one of the world’s two premier science journals? (The other is the British journal Nature.).  And, as in Scientific American, the editor tends to display op-ed pieces catering to a woke mentality.

The report at hand is especially bad because author Rodrigo Ortega actually leaves out relevant data and distorts other data—all in the cause of promoting transgender women (most who have transitioned after puberty) being allowed to compete in women’s sports against biological women. The title question, asking whether transgender women should be banned from competing with biological women, refers to this recent ruling (excerpts from article are indented):

World Athletics (WA), the governing body for track and field and other running competitions, announced last month that transgender women who went through male puberty can no longer compete in women’s events at international competitions. The policy took effect on 31 March.

And it’s clear for two reasons that the author (and probably Science magazine itself) thinks that trangender women should not be banned.

a.) The article quotes only critics of the ban, not advocates. More important:

b.) The article quotes only one piece of science, based on a tiny sample size, that long-distance runners who transition from biological male to trans female don’t lose their relative position in competing against either members of the pre-transition versus post-transition sex. But they leave out two pieces of more extensive peer-reviewed data that biological males who transition to the female gender retain substantial advantages in athletic-informed traits retain their athletic advantages despite lowered testosterone. Further, the author distorts one study to make it look like transwomen attain athletic par with biological women, when in fact the study shows the opposite.

The clear answer to the question in the title below is NO. But the real answer is, if you go by the data themselves, is “yes.” I conclude that the Science article below is not only biased (probably by ideology), but also misleading, perhaps deliberately so.

Click the screenshot to read.

Two quotes against the WA ban, one from a grad student, the other from a geneticist. There are no quotes from people like Emma Hilton, who would undoubtedly say that the WA ban is the right decision. (I think it was, too.) They are biasing the article simply by using a subset of relevant people. Here’s one quote:

But Joanna Harper, a Ph.D. student at Loughborough University who studies transgender athletes’ performance, questions whether the WA fully considered the scientific evidence. “I was disappointed with the decision,” says Harper, who is transgender. “The idea that it was necessary to ban trans women to protect the female category seems so far-fetched.”

and, in response to the header, “Is there evidence that transgender women athletes have a physiological advantage?,” they quote a geneticist:

Not according to Eric Vilain, a geneticist at the University of California, Irvine, who specializes in gender-based biology. Very little research has been published on transgender athletes, and what has been published didn’t provide enough results to create evidence-based policies, says Vilain, who does not identify as transgender. “It’s not black and white.”

Then the magazine quotes two papers that supposedly show that becoming a trans woman gives you no biological advantage in sport over biological women. Here’s one quote:

For example, a 2021 review found trans women’s muscle mass remains high after transitioning, but their levels of hemoglobin—the oxygen-carrying protein in blood—were comparable to cisgender women’s. Increased levels of hemoglobin facilitate more oxygen transport to muscles when active, and men tend to have higher hemoglobin than women.

Well, click on the link and go to the paper by Joanna Harper et al. What you will find is that yes, Hb levels were comparable to those of cisgender women, but of course Hb levels are not the only factor involved in sport. The Harper et al. paper also says this: (my bolding):

Twenty-four studies were identified and reviewed. Transwomen experienced significant decreases in all parameters measured, with different time courses noted. After 4 months of hormone therapy, transwomen have Hgb/HCT levels equivalent to those of cisgender women. After 12 months of hormone therapy, significant decreases in measures of strength, LBM [lean body mass] and muscle area are observed. The effects of longer duration therapy (36 months) in eliciting further decrements in these measures are unclear due to paucity of data. Notwithstanding, values for strength, LBM and muscle area in transwomen remain above those of cisgender women, even after 36 months of hormone therapy.

Conclusion: In transwomen, hormone therapy rapidly reduces Hgb to levels seen in cisgender women. In contrast, hormone therapy decreases strength, LBM and muscle area, yet values remain above that observed in cisgender women, even after 36 months. These findings suggest that strength may be well preserved in transwomen during the first 3 years of hormone therapy.

Note that although author Ortega talks only about Hb levels, he omits the conclusions about strength, lean body mass, and muscle area, which after transitioning are NOT comparable to those of biological women, but HIGHER—even after three years of testosterone therapy. The last sentence of the Harper et al. paper, “These findings suggest that strength may be well preserved in transwomen during the first 3 years of hormone therapy” is not even mentioned by Ortego, but conflicts completely with what he is trying to show with Hb levels.  This cannot be an error—not if Ortega read the paper—but seems to me an example of intellectual dishonesty. The dishonesty is compounded by Ortega’s failure to cite two papers that are far more relevant to judging whether trans women who go through male puberty keep an athletic advantage over biological women.

Here is the other evidence cited in the article.

A rare performance study on trans athletes, a 2015 study by Harper of eight women, found their race times slowed after transitioning from male to female, while their performance relative to sex-matched runners stayed the same. The results suggest they have no advantage over cisgender women.

It’s the same Harper, and in the paper itself (second link), the authors report that using adjusted measures of running ability in trans women relative to biological men before they transitioned, and then to biological women after they had transitioned, there was no significant change. Note that the sample size was eight, that more than half of the data were self-reported times, that these were not elite runners, and that the running abilities were measured via an algorithm rather than by placement in actual races.  The data might be all right, but I’m betting that trans women who actually run at these distances (5K and marathons) would perform much better against biological women than against men.

But what’s really almost duplicitous in this article, which came out last month, is its arrant neglect of much more extensive data that has accumulated in the last several years, in particular two reviews of athletic-connected traits in trans women measured before versus after transitioning after puberty. They’re cited in this thread by Emma Hilton, who was an author of one of the papers:

The reference:

Both of these papers came out after the ones cited by Ortega in Science, and I wrote about both of them in January of last year.  You should look at the original paper, and also read the summary article by Pike et al. But the papers tell the tale, and what’s below is from the summary of both papers quoted in my post (authors’ words). Don’t take my word for it; read the two scientific papers and the summary:

There have been two high-quality, high-impact academic reviews, both in leading sports journals, of muscle and skeletal physiology in transwomen who have, post-puberty, suppressed testosterone as part of their transition. The reviews cover longitudinal studies; that is, they contain pre-transition metrics such as thigh muscle area and grip strength, and matched data from at least 12 months, occasionally longer, into transition. All transwomen studied had been successfully suppressing testosterone to less than 10 nmol/l for at least one year, and would therefore qualify for inclusion in female sports categories under the regulations specified by the IOC and most sports federations. Collectively, the studies captured by these reviews cover over 800 transwomen in 10 original studies, with data acquired as a routine aspect of ongoing general health assessments within clinical care teams.

To summarize: In transwomen successfully suppressing testosterone for 12 months, skeletal metrics—height, limb/digit length, and shoulder/pelvic width—do not change, and the extent of muscle/strength loss is approximately -5 percent after 12 months, a modest change that is insufficient to bridge the baseline muscular differences between males and females.

Regarding musculoskeletal parameters, Hilton and Lundberg concluded: “The biological advantage, most notably in terms of muscle mass and strength, conferred by male puberty and thus enjoyed by most transgender women is only minimally reduced when testosterone is suppressed as per current sporting guidelines for transgender athletes.”

This conclusion was subsequently confirmed by Joanna Harper and her fellow researchers, who added: “Hormone therapy decreases strength, lean body mass and muscle area, yet values remain above [those] observed in cisgender women, even after 36 months.”

Note that the “subsequent confirmation” was written in 2021 by the same Harper who’s cited six years earlier as supporting transgender women’s “right” to compete in sports, but the author of the Science piece doesn’t mention that paper!

These results match the increasingly numerous examples of trans women taking top honors in various women’s sports.

So what we see is a very biased and distorted new article in Science that, I’m sad to say, looks as if it deliberately neglected highly relevant data showing that trans women retain significant phenotypic traits that would give them athletic advantages in sports competitions against biological women. Now you can say that perhaps the author didn’t dig deeply into the literature (though there isn’t much), but to me it looks like intellectual dishonesty in the service of the ideology Science has promoted in recent years.

It is negligent and reprehensible for the nation’s premier science journal to spin scientific data this way. The facts remain the facts, and to me they support the decision of the World Athletics that it’s unfair to biological women to be forced to compete in track and field against trans women.  In this article Science concludes otherwise, but can do so only by twisting previous data and neglecting more comprehensive and relevant data. Anybody who knows anything about this area—even a lowly geneticist like me—knows that data contrary to the author’s (and journal’s) apparent ideology is being omitted or distorted.  There is no excuse for this, and you can pass the buck up to the Editor in Chief, Holden Thorp.